Download the original YouTube video and audio (without re-encoding).

[Tibo3d]

Your question

Is it possible to download the original YouTube codecs without re-encoding (to preserve the best possible quality)? On 4K videos, YouTube uses VP9 for video and Opus for audio according to the "stats for nerds". is there a way to retrieve them?
Thank you ! :)

Addon & CoApp version and details

version: 9.5.0.2
target: mozilla
channel: stable
lang: fr
coapp: {"found":true,"path":"C:\Program Files\DownloadHelper CoApp\vdhcoapp.exe","version":"2.0.19","new_version":false}
license: {"accepted":true,"email":"","key":"628a6b2e0cf44c30"}
platform: x86-64 win
UA: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:141.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/141.0
{
"valid_license_message_has_been_displayed": true,
"privacy_accept": true,
"http_media_download_strategy": "inbrowser",
"used_history_button": true,
"download_directory": "D:\Library\Download",
"never_show_no_incognito_msg_again": true,
"theme": "system",
"view_options": {
"all_tabs": false,
"low_quality": false,
"sort_by_status": true,
"sort_reverse": false,
"show_button_clean": true,
"show_button_clean_all": false,
"show_button_convert_local": false,
"hide_downloaded": false
},
"use_legacy_ui": false,
"open_count_store": 8,
"successfull_dl": 2,
"record_download_history": true
}

[GrampaWildWilly]

I do not work for VDH. I am just another user. Also, please read #2214.

You use the term "codec." VDH does not download codecs. It downloads variants. There is a difference. A codec is a piece of software on your system that enCODes & DECodes audio-visual content. I put parts of those words in capital letters to show where the made-up word codec comes from: code-decode.

A variant is one of the resolutions of a video that is made available by the web site. The web site chooses which of several resolutions it makes available. This is not a decision made by VDH. VDH merely detects what the web site provides.

I'm a fellow nerd. It is important to keep terminology straight. It's not just an anal retentive, pedantic detail. It's important to use terms properly so you can make yourself understood.

In #485 I explain in excruciating detail how to collect the Hit Details from VDH. The example I use is a YouTube video. The most important content in the Hit Details is the HLS master manifest. Once you have the master manifest, you can determine for yourself what YouTube is offering in the way of variants. I show many examples of this in discussions in this forum in which I use the term Plan B. A search of this forum using that search key will turn up plenty of those discussions. You need ffprobe, which is part of ffmpeg, which you can download for free from ffmpeg.org.

But that should be moot. The box on the VDH menu that shows a variant includes a clickable field showing a resolution. Click that. A scrollable list should drop down showing all the available variants, including a number of MKV choices. Those MKV choices will download VP9 video tracks with Opus audio tracks. Nerd information & all this other stuff is not needed. VDH will do what you are asking for. It does it without re-encoding or transcoding anything. VDH simply downloads the given video with the VP9 video track & the Opus audio track.

You should provide one sample YouTube URL of a page hosting a video you think you are not getting properly. I'll show you what you have to do.